Preview: Match day three

A fine day is forecast for the Tshwane region for Match Day Three of the 2005 Women’s Cricket World Cup today, Saturday March 26. The match of the day is probably that between India and South Africa at TUT Oval. In other games today, Australia meet the West Indies at Rustenburg, England play Ireland at Eersterust, and New Zealand face Sri Lanka at the Harlequins.

India v South Africa

India had Sri Lanka on the ropes in their opening round washout on Tuesday and then comprehensively defeated Ireland before lunch on Thursday. South Africa, on the other hand, were struggling a little against Ireland in the first round, and struggled even more against the West Indies on Thursday, winning by just one run.

South Africa’s form has been disappointing in this tournament to date as well as the pre-tournament series against England, and a win today will be crucial if they are to entertain any hope of making the final four.

Australia v West Indies

Australia and the West Indies have only met once in one day internationals with Australia winning that match by 8 wickets with 175 balls to spare, 2/133 (30.5) def 8/131 (60). This match was played at the 1993 World Cup – top scorer for Australia was Belinda Clark with 53 while Bronwyn Calver was the leading wicket-taker with 4/4 off 12 overs. Three players taking the field today took part in that game – Clark, Cathryn Fitzpatrick and Stephanie Power.

The West Indies exceeded expectations in taking South Africa to the wire on Thursday, but Australia should be too strong today. The Australians will be looking for the bonus point to keep in touch with England at the top of the ladder.

England v Ireland

Just how many times England and Ireland have met in one-day internationals depends on how you classify their European Championship matches over the years. In any case, they have met five times in World Cup play. England’s margins of victory have been: seven wickets (North Sydney, 1988), ten wickets (Melbourne, 1988), 162 runs on run-rate (Reading, 1993), 208 runs (Pune, 1997), and eight wickets (Lincoln, 2000). Don’t expect anything to be all that different today.

New Zealand v Sri Lanka

Just the two meetings between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, both at World Cups: NZ won by 165 runs at Chandigarh in 1997 and by 122 runs at Lincoln Green in 2000. New Zealand will rue the loss of Emily Drumm for the rest of the tournament, but Sri Lanka’s batting performances against India and England indicate that this should be another easy White Ferns victory.

(Bronwyn Calver contributed to this report.)

(Note: This article was originally written for the Cricketwoman website in 2005. It may contain links to Cricketarchive which have long since ceased to exist. Cricketwoman was a partner website of Cricketarchive at the time of the 2005 Womens World Cup. – RE, 2017-07-21)